Science, the Starting Point of Faith
Faith gives an answer to questions like: Why do we exist? What is the meaning of life? Why is there something instead of nothing? Nuclear physics, chemistry or mathematics can’t answer those questions. That is not their domain. The question the scientist wants to answer is how our world works. For centuries, people thought and believed that they could find the answer to that question in the Bible. It has only been a few centuries since Christians started to disassemble these questions, an unravelling that is still going on.
Many people say that they believed as a child, but that they lost their faith when they discovered science. One of the reasons for this is that many people’s knowledge of faith has been limited to the knowledge they had of it when they were children. It is not surprising that such a belief is undermined by the confrontation with scientific thinking. For others, it is precisely the practice of science that is the starting point of a path of faith: Who or what is at the origin of this incredibly beautiful cosmos?
Nikolaas Sintobin SJ, Did Jesus Really Exist? And 51 other questions
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We Have Been Graced
In his letters, Paul often speaks out of a sense of having been greatly graced by God. Although ‘less than the least of all the saints’ (the baptised), he has been entrusted with a ‘special grace’. The grace Paul speaks about is the Gospel, which unveils the mystery of Christ. Paul is overawed by ‘the depths that I see in the mystery of Christ’. He is very aware that this grace that has been entrusted to him carries with it a responsibility. He is called to be a servant of this Gospel with which he has been graced, responsible for proclaiming it to those who have never heard it, and sees himself as a ‘steward’ who has been given much by his master and who now needs to show that he is worthy of what has been entrusted to him. We have all been graced in various ways by the Lord. We have been baptised into Christ; we have been given a share in his Spirit; we have been entrusted with the Gospel; we are members of Christ’s body, the Church; we receive his coming as bread of life in the Eucharist; we are touched by his merciful presence in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Like trustworthy stewards, we have been entrusted with a great deal by the Lord. As ‘faithful and wise’ stewards, we need to keep treasuring the many graces we have received from God and live out of what has been entrusted to us. We have been graced by the Lord so that we can grace others with what we have received.
Martin Hogan, The Word of God is Living and Active
Only God Knows What’s Next
The current global action to protect and restore Planet Earth is being prompted and enabled by the Spirit of God, the Giver of Life. ‘The Holy Ghost over the bent / World broods with warm breast and with ah! Bright wings’ (G. M. Hopkins). Humankind is not alone, fighting a helpless cause. Prophetic voices from all sides are supporting our unique historical moment of grace and challenge. We are discovering that what seems lost and beyond recovery can come to life again, as with species being rescued from extinction and with the planting of a great green wall of trees across African deserts. The boundless wisdom and dynamics of the universe, which have shaped things thus far, are available to us: we are not adrift in cosmic isolation but immersed in a sea of divine energy beyond all comprehension. We must do all we can, and pray deeply, and be willing to suffer much, knowing that divine power is at work within us to carry out God’s purposes beyond our hopes and dreams (Ephesians 3:20). In our global crisis, we are also witnessing the surprising growth, even if fragile, of the community of humankind. People of all faiths and none are joining hands in the common cause, and this meets God’s underlying desire, that we all may be one in universal harmony (John 17:11).
The divine covenant with creation endures forever: ‘When the rainbow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my everlasting covenant with every living creature on the earth’ (Genesis 9:16). ‘When you send forth your Spirit, you renew the face of the earth’ (Psalm 104:30). As Bishop Desmond Tutu says, ’Only God knows what’s next!’
Brian Grogan SJ, Creation Walk: The Amazing Story of a Small Blue Planet
Dreaming God’s Dream
St Ignatius said that we can find God in our deepest desires. That’s a remarkable statement if we carry it through to practice. Spending time dreaming about our deepest desires might just bring us into a sacred space.
Here’s another remarkable thought. A very wise friend said some time ago that if we say ‘Yes’ to God, God will make that ‘Yes’ happen, even if what we are saying ‘Yes’ to is something we hadn’t planned for in life or something that we don’t feel capable of doing. In other words, our ‘Yes’ from a position of faith is fertile ground for God to be at God’s work. Think of Mary’s ‘yes’ to the angel that brought about Jesus’ coming into the world.
None of this has anything to do with us; it has nothing to do with us getting things. It’s way more profound and way more meaningful for our lives and the lives of those around us. We might not even see ourselves ‘gaining’ anything at all in a worldly sense. We simply align ourselves with God. We dream God’s dream.
Putting this together, if we dream God’s dream for our lives, find our deepest desires, way beyond surface wants, and say ‘Yes’ to God, we can see God’s dream for us and our world come true. Now that is Good News!
Brendan McManus SJ and Jim Deeds, Emerging from the Mess
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Our Lives May Need Tuning Up
Some time ago, while on a holiday weekend in London, I set out to go to one of my favourite churches in London, St Martin in the Fields. Over the last few years, it has offered me a quiet, prayerful space to begin my holiday. That morning, as I entered the church, I realised that it was not going to be such a quiet experience. At the front of the church, there was a big grand piano. Sitting or, rather, kneeling at it was a piano tuner. He was at his work, repeatedly striking one note and making minuscule changes in its pitch by … well, I’m not sure how he worked his magic!
I took my seat and closed my eyes, and I tried to pray. But the notes, the notes kept coming. I found it hard to ignore them in favour of my prayers. After a while, I found that I let myself get caught up in the notes and in the changes in pitch that I could just about make out. The sharp notes came down in pitch. The flat ones went up. It became a way for me to pray. In that prayer, it struck me that there are many ways that we can be a bit out of tune in our lives. There are areas that are flat, where we experience a sense of being down, sad, low or lacking in energy. There are also areas of our lives where we are sharp, with ourselves and with others, too. In this way, we can be out of tune with ourselves and with others. We may need tuning up so that we can live harmoniously with ourselves, with others and with God’s plan for us. God, through prayer, wants to connect with us.
Brendan McManus SJ and Jim Deeds, Emerging from the Mess
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Disordered Attachments
What Ignatius calls disordered attachments can get the better of us – pride, greed, fear, perfectionism, the insatiable appetite for instant affirmation generated by social media, over-stimulation, the expectation of 24/7 availability, failure to realise we’re stewards of creation and not its owner, obsession with prestige and status, the ‘I have more than you’ syndrome and all the other attractions that draw us away from God, ourselves and others, leaving us in a state of emotional turbulence, excitement and exhaustion.
My worth as a person is not determined by what I have. My material possessions, my academic attainments, my successes, my income and my bank balance do not define my worth as an invaluable and unique human person. My worth is not determined by what’s outside myself. The bad spirit, the enemy of my human nature, would have me believe otherwise. I’m infinitely richer than that. It’s so easy to get caught up in what we think we need and desire, but in the cold light of day we see the illusions for what they are. Solidarity with one another, rather than competition with one another, is God’s idea of what life is about.
Jim Maher SJ, Pathways to a Decision with Ignatius of Loyola
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We Are Active Partners In the Work of God
Something to think and pray about each day this week:
They looked down from heaven – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – with love for their people. They could see men and women of all races, colours, ages, faiths, holiness and sin. They knew help was needed for the human race and waited a long time before the time was right.
The Word of God, Son of God, born before all ages, became one of us. We know the rest of the story. One of the persons of the Trinity became one of us, so that we could become like them. Jesus, Son of the eternal Father, was born, lived and died like us. In death, cruelly murdered and then laid in the tomb, the Spirit became alive in him, and now the Spirit of Jesus and the Father is alive in each of us since baptism.
The life of the Trinity becomes very ordinary in the love, care and forgiveness we offer to each other. It’s also there in the ways in which we try to better the lives of the poor, the depressed and the anxious. It’s in how we try to teach a younger generation the best lessons of humanity and faith, and introduce them to this mystery of God. We are active partners in the work of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the world today.
Donal Neary SJ, Gospel Reflections for Sundays of Year A
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The Joy In Loving With Grateful Hearts
In summer, new beauty appears as the garden fills with colour. Flowers open, leaves unfurl, and trees start to put on their full summer foliage. Each day brings something new, especially in the perennial beds, and the gardener is busy indeed, feeding, watering, staking, mowing and nurturing the lawn, and dealing with the abundance of weeds and the surge of life among the garden pests who have found a foothold for themselves in the warming earth.
If the gardener is not careful, there will scarcely be time to enjoy it all; there is so much to be done to keep pace with nature’s summer abundance. It is important to take time between tasks simply to sit and wonder, to take a cup of tea or a cool summer drink out to the garden and just sit and stare and experience the beauty and the joy of it. These months, with their long, busy days and languorous evenings, are the time to tune in also to the beauty of our lives and to discover the joy there is in loving with grateful hearts.
Sr Stanislaus Kennedy, RSC, The Sacred Heart Messenger, July 2024
Pray to Become Like Mary
If May is a month of devotion to Mary, maybe we can pray to become like her in our hearts, awakening to her teachings so we can learn to appreciate everything through the lens of her love, wisdom and truth. Our words, emotions, actions, beliefs and feelings may return by conscious choice and divine decision to union with Source. To awaken each day with grace and a sense of peace, preparation, protection, love, and faith in our hearts is to live in the world in a brave and glorious new way. This compassionate and expansive mother energy is available each day and is offered to each of us so we can create a cohesive new earth, with all of God’s creation interconnected.
If we allow this vision to grow within our consciousness, both individually and collectively, perhaps we can release our patterns of divisiveness and instead embrace the essence of our infinite sacred Mother in our hearts and trust this to lead us home, to unity, wholeness and unconditional love once again. May this be our prayer to our Mother Mary during this month of May.
Andrea Hayes, The Sacred Heart Messenger, May 2024
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Forgiveness Leads to Healing
A person’s Christianity can be measured by the degree to which they are prepared to forgive. Forgiveness is one of the deepest expressions of charity. Forgiveness leads to healing. We carry around with us a lot of baggage. We carry the baggage in an invisible sack, and it can weigh us down and tire us. There is no inner peace. We carry wounds, scars, bruises, and hurts from the past, resentment, anger and bitterness. The key to healing of this kind is forgiveness. Forgive, and the baggage melts away. Let go of the chains that bind us. The chains around us have no lock, just our own grip. Let go, forgive, and they will fall away.
An unforgiving attitude, bitterness and a desire for vengeance poison the soul and increase anxiety and feelings of depression, whereas forgiveness heals and frees. It is healthy and wholesome, and it brings peace.
Who is the person whose hand you will not shake?
If you have hatred in your heart for anyone, try to root it out. Easier said than done. The important thing is to try. To try and to keep on trying is to be a saint.
Never are we more like God than when we forgive.
Terence Harrington OFM Cap, The Sacred Heart Messenger, April 2024